How to successfully transit to tech-career – Expert

Ayodeji Ishola, a senior health technology product manager and registered mentor with the British Computer Society and Chartered Institute for IT, has said that anyone in the non-tech industries can successfully transition to a career in tech.

Ayodeji in an interview recently stated that the world is in the age of information overload, in which a lack of proper planning may lead to time loss and financial resources, or even the unfortunate event of transitioning into a role that isn’t one’s path of best fit.

According to him, while there are a plethora of reasons for transitioning to a career in tech, it is important that one transit into a path of best fit – which maximizes a person’s transferable skills.

He explained that the simultaneous disruption of multiple industries by tech is rapidly making several jobs obsolete while creating new ones. “Technology has disrupted several industries and has created several multi-millionaires and billionaires. Interestingly, it has also taken away several jobs while creating new ones,” he said.

“Whether professionals realize this or not, the future of work is upon us – our options are to get on the bus or be left behind.”

He stressed that not everyone may consider transitioning to tech as there would always be a need for subject-matter expertise across industries.

“I’d like to state that it is important to understand that the goal of technology, and the aim of industry disruption – via technology – is to help make our lives better. Across different industries, the place of subject-matter expertise is very difficult to take away.

Some Industries like clinical medicine, criminal defense law, and technology management, for example, would rely on human subject-matter expertise to function properly – in the long foreseeable future.

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“You would agree that the thought of the concept of replacing the jury in a criminal defense courtroom with technology is quite laughable within the context of our current realities.”

Deji said professionals and aspiring professionals needed to be certain as to whether they belonged to the first category for which tech skills would be a complimentary skill to their current skill sets or a second category that would require a full transition to tech, using their transferable skills as assets in their transition journey.

“Your success as a technology professional hinges on your understanding of technology product(s), and how your role fits into the big picture – within the context of the same,” he said.

He further explained that a product manager is a professional who leverages the skills of other professionals working across different tech roles to ensure a technology product is successfully created, properly introduced to the market, nurtured to maturity, and retired or transitioned into a new/innovative version.

In addition, he explained that a transition to a career in tech meant that a professional would be looking to work in one or more of the 3 broad subsects of the product management office, which include roles that focus on the Customer, Business or Engineering.

When asked for practical examples, he stated that tech-related courses such as Cybersecurity, data science, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, UI/UX design, programing, quality assurance testing, digital marketing, product ownership, business analysis, blockchain, augmented reality, agile, scrum, kanban, robotic process automation, and devOps among others, simply prepare professionals to serve one or more of the subsets of the product management office.

He identified that a high-level roadmap to transitioning to non-engineering as well as engineering-related roles in tech includes introspection, exposure, skill acquisition, gaining experience and networking as well as leveling up with certifications.